LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
By KEITH ROGERS
December 21, 2013
Homeless Marine veteran Michael Coughlin heads for his living quarters at a homeless encampment near Lake Mead Boulevard and North Simmons Street in Las Vegas Friday, Dec. 13, 2013. Coughlin, who's a fill-in deacon at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, says it's his mission to help the homeless. Part of that outreach includes teaching them what he calls urban camping skills.
(Bill Hughes/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
“Anybody home?” hollers Marine veteran Michael Coughlin as he strides across the chalky soil making his daily rounds through a homeless camp.
For two years, with help from the Westminster Presbyterian Church’s food pantry, he has been playing the role of guardian angel for fellow homeless people living in hidden hooches on the shrub-dotted desert next to the North Las Vegas Airport.
“It’s been the hardest two years of my life and the best two years of my life,” Coughlin, 53, said on a mid-December tour of the camp he calls “No Man’s Land.”
A survival expert who was raised on his family’s homestead land in Alaska, Coughlin routinely checks on his throng of homeless friends and teaches them outdoor skills for enduring harsh, chilly winters and sweltering summers.
He draws on his 10-year experience as an infantry Marine serving in such places as Nicaragua, Panama and Somalia. He was honorably discharged in 1987.
“I call it urban camping,” he said. “I teach them how to hide and stay warm. The last two years have been absolute dedication to make sure they’re fed and clothed.
The hardest part is to get them to know they’re loved by Jesus Christ and fellow man.”
Coughlin, a divorced man whose parents are deceased, became homeless when he was laid off from his last job in the gaming industry after the recession hit bottom in 2009. He said he had worked in several downtown casinos, rising from dealer to pit boss.
“When my unemployment was running out, I knew I had to do something good with my life,” he said, recalling the promise he made at the time. “What have you done for anybody other than yourself? I’m not going to self-medicate myself. I’m going to do the right thing.”
And “the right thing” turned out to become a homeless person and help others by living with them in their own element. With that came pitfalls to overcome such as having his bicycle stolen three times in two years. He’s now riding his fourth bike to reach odd jobs such as lawn work and moving assistance to earn a few bucks.
“The church is the hub of the wheel I work out of,” he said.
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